(chá) - tea in Mandarin

chá

Traditional: 茶

HSK 1

#1668 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

tea

Word origin

茶 (chá) 'tea' is a phono-semantic compound. The grass radical 艹 at the top marks it as a plant, while the lower part 余 (yú) supplies the sound. The character was standardised in the Tang dynasty, and the English word 'tea' comes from the Min Chinese reading 'te', whereas 'chai' comes from this Mandarin reading 'chá'.

Origin: phono-semantic compound
Root: 艹 (grass, semantic) + 余 (yú, phonetic)
English cognates: tea, chai

Stroke order

茶

Examples

。

I like drinking tea.

。

This cup of tea is very hot.

？

Would you like tea or coffee?

茶 (chá) means tea.

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Mandarin · Free printables

茶: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "茶" (tea): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 40.